A tale of the unexpected
by AmbivalentOxymoron
Summary: One shot for the prompt "unexpected" for Fitzsimmons week. My attempt at humour- let me know if it works!


**Prompt Two: Unexpected**

**I'm not sure a broken centrifuge would actually create the problem Simmons describes, but I am using my artistic license. I have previously read fics where Fitz can do magic/card tricks, and it fits with my headcanon that he will basically try anything where he has to use his hands- so thank you to whoever it was that planted the seed of that idea in my brain!**

**Obviously I do not own Agents of Shield. I am poor.**

"I am sooo bored," Skye flung herself back onto the sofa and groaned loudly, bringing an amused laugh from Fitz's throat. Skye always complained she was bored on days when they didn't have a mission, whereas he quite enjoyed the time to relax and focus with no distractions.

The hacker caught him observing her and pounced. "Play with me!"

"What?!" He coughed on a pretzel and mourned as several more fell from his overflowing bowl to the floor.

"Come on- I'm bored! Entertain me!"

"Erm... how?"

"Ugh!" Skye huffed and threw her hands in the air in exasperation. "If I was Simmons you'd know what to do."

He tilted his head to one side introspectively before acknowledging her. "Well, yes. But I've known her for longer."

Skye muttered under her breath, "Yeh_ and_ you're completely in love with her."

"What?!" Fitz lifted his head sharply. He hadn't heard her but he'd sensed the tone.

"Nothing," Skye gave him her most angelic smile, rousing his suspicions further.

"Come on, what did you say?"

"Nothing. So... if I _was _Simmons, what would you do to entertain me?" She forced her face into a neutral pose, delighting in the involuntary flush that rose from the engineer's neck to his cheeks.

"I...erm...well. I'd probably just talk to her about science," he twiddled with his hands, nervously aware that they were straying into potentially dangerous territory. _He __knew__ Skye had caught him staring at Simmons the other day in the lab. It wasn't his fault she looked so... _

"Science. Oh how original," Skye rolled her eyes. "Science is her _job._ Surely you'd _entertain_ her in some other way?"

"We like science!" Fitz protested, before frowning in thought. He opened his mouth to speak before he was interrupted.

"No- you can't just watch TV either."

"Why not?" The Scot's voice rose to a high pitch in his objection, and he coughed to clear his throat.

"Because it's my game, and I say you can't." She bit the urge to stick out her tongue;_ it was Fitz who was the child, not her._

It was Fitz's turn to roll his eyes, but he played along. "Ok, then I'd probably show her some magic."

"Magic?" Skye's interest suddenly piqued. "You can do magic?"

"Just card tricks really."

"And Simmons likes them?"

"Yes," he nodded enthusiastically. "She says she likes watching my hands move so quickly. She said it's like..." He'd started to smile before noticing Skye's delighted expression. "What?"

Skye slowly repeated what he had said, "she likes watching your _hands move_?" The hacker tried unsuccessfully to choke back a laugh.

Fitz opened and closed his mouth a few times, a goldfish trapped in Skye's fishbowl of doom. _He hadn't thought this through. _

A crash behind them signalled the arrival of a very frazzled biochemist and they snapped their heads round to see her bolt through the door.

"Fitz! Thank god- I need you to help me!"

"What is it?" he jumped up from where he was sat, tripping over his feet in eagerness to help Jemma and leave the scheming hacker.

"The centrifuge... something's gone wrong and the lid has broken- I have samples spinning all over the lab and I can't turn it off! I need you to fix it!"

"I suppose he'll need his fast hands for that won't he?" Skye purred, a Cheshire cat grin across her face as she continued to tease Fitz.

Fitz grabbed Jemma's arm as he saw her brow furrow in confusion, about to ask for an explanation. "Never mind her." He put his hand to the small of Jemma's back and guided her back to the door, glaring and Skye over his shoulder.

A few hours later Skye was still sat in the communal area of the Bus. She had organised all their herbs and spices alphabetically, faced all the mugs to face the front of the cupboards and stacked all of the plates into even pyramids. She had even arranged all of the products in the fridge by type, and cross-referenced by expiry date. She had clearly been spending too much time with Simmons.

As though summoned by her friend's musings, the biochemist sailed serenely into the kitchen area and grinned at her.

"You seem chirpy," Skye stated the obvious.

Jemma's grin widened, "Fitz fixed the centrifuge. He is _so _clever. He amazes me sometimes."

"He does?" Skye propped her head onto her hands innocently. It was so easy to get Jemma to walk into one of her traps, especially when she started one of her rambles about the Marvellousness-That-Is-Leopold-Fitz.

"Oh all the time. Like the other day, when he was fixing Lola. That's a very _masculine _thing to do isn't it? Fixing a car... And he was all... _oily..._in his overalls. He's really quite muscular isn't he?"

Jemma's voice had taken an uncharacteristically low tone. Skye could not believe the words that had left her friend's mouth and gaped at her in surprise.

Suddenly Jemma noticed her friend's gleeful expression and she put her hand to her mouth. "Oh... Skye, you _know _what I mean."

"No. Explain it to me."

Jemma shifted uncomfortably on her feet. "Well I'd always thought of Fitz in a certain way... and then..."

"Go on."

"Well he's quite... _impressive _isn't he? I mean I've always known his _brain_ is impressive but never noticed his... body."

Skye bit her lip in an effort to keep a straight face. "His body?"

"Yes, it was quite... unexpected," Jemma breathed deeply, flushed, and started to fan her face before realising what that looked like and pretending to swat away an invisible fly. She forced herself to regain her composure.

"Simmons... do _you_ have a _crush_ on _Fitz_?!" Skye emphasised the words and pulled an exaggerated expression of shock. _She knew the biochemist better than she knew herself._

"What?! No! Can't a woman _appreciate_... a man's..._body _without there being more to it?!"

"Whose body are you appreciating?" The musical Scottish lilt behind her caused Jemma to jump and groan inwardly. She glared at Skye, who had seen the engineer enter but kept quiet.

"Oh, erm... no one's...just... Coulson!"

"Coulson?" Fitz screwed up his face in disbelief. "I didn't know you thought of him like that Jem."

"Oh, of course. He's so _rugged_, and _manly_, and he has hair... all over his head." She faltered as Fitz raised his eyebrows. "Doesn't he Skye?"

"That he does," the mischief maker nodded with mock sincerity. "You mentioned something about his hands."

"I did?" Jemma looked puzzled for a moment before directing her attention back to Fitz. _If she looked like she didn't know what Skye was talking about it would give away that she was lying. _She could feel the panic begin to rise in her chest as her voice reached a pitch only Chihuahuas could hear, "I did." She nodded vigorously. "Very _manly_ hands."

"She likes the way they _move_." Skye looked pointedly at Fitz, deliberately shifting her gaze from his hands to his face.

"Oh. _Oh_." He was a goldfish again. "Coulson?" he repeated.

Jemma nodded as Skye shook her head behind her.

"That's... unexpected," he rubbed the back of his neck nervously but allowed a smile to creep to his mouth.

"That's what I said!" Jemma beamed at him. "We should see if those samples have finished." She grabbed Fitz's arm, who couldn't take his eyes from her face, a besotted grin now covering his own. "Skye, want to keep us company in the lab?"

"Oh I think I've had more than enough fun for today. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" she winked at Fitz, but Jemma remained oblivious, and waved them off.

"Ten bucks he does nothing about that," she murmured to nobody in particular.


End file.
